EP 1 484 511 B1 discloses a concatenation module for controlling an electrical valve drive of a fluid valve arrangement, comprising a housing with concatenation contacts on the housing for making electrical contact to a further concatenation module. The housing is in form of an injection molded three-dimensional circuit board of the molded interconnect device (MID) type and comprises conductive traces and electrical components for controlling and monitoring functions and/or for a communication function.
DE 197 19 730 C1 discloses a plug-in connection for potentially explosive areas for energy and data transfer between at least one electrical load and a bus system, which comprises a transformer including a primary part and a secondary part each one arranged in a respective connecter half housing so as to be separable and mateable.
The primary part housing includes a limiting means for electrical quantities (current/voltage), while the interior of the secondary part housing can be dedicated to the potentially explosive area.
Certain electronic devices have to be very compact, which means that spatial issues have to be addressed skillfully. At the same time, the electronic components of the devices should exhibit good insulation and dielectric strength, particularly in potentially explosive areas.
Electronic systems operating with bus systems often include a rail for accommodating parts of the bus system and for mounting subscriber devices which are plugged thereto. Subscriber devices usually accommodate one or more circuit boards equipped with electronic components that receive, process, and forward signals. Power supply and signal input and output is effected via the bus system. The circuit boards may have single- or multilayered designs, and flexible or other three-dimensional conductor configurations with electronic components connected thereto may also be used. Such structures will simply be referred to as a circuit board below.
The subscriber devices of the bus system are subject to various requirements. For safety reasons, the bus subscriber should be galvanically isolated from its power source and data interface. Furthermore, a small width of the subscriber devices is desirable so that many devices can be accommodated side by side on a support rail.